Bellefontaine Cemetery is St. Louis Hidden Treasure

Historic Bellefontaine Cemetery is one of the best hidden gems in St. Louis, Missouri, and a personal favorite. The nonprofit, nonsectarian cemetery and arboretum is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

I recently spent a week seeing the best of St. Louis, and my Bellefontaine Cemetery tour was a highlight. 

You can get outdoors here any time of year amongst gorgeous trees and landscaping. Immerse yourself in history, spot birds and wildlife, and explore this outdoor museum featuring world-class architecture and hundreds of sculptures. 

The first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi, Bellefontaine was designed by renowned American landscape architect Almerin Hotchkiss. In 2014, the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wait, the National Register of Historic Places? I told ya, hidden treasure!

Read on for details about why you should visit Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

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Bellefontaine Cemetery is a glorious urban green space

We’re talking 314 gorgeous, rolling acres with 14 miles of paved roads. This peaceful landscape is free and available to the public 365 days a year.

Go for walk, a run, a bike ride, a picnic, to simply enjoy the outdoors. Leashed dogs are welcome to come along.

Not many people know Bellefontaine is a Class 3 arboretum, nurturing an incredible diversity of tree, plant and flower life. In fact, it’s the first Class 3 Arboretum in Missouri, and one of only 44 in the world.

This serene urban oasis might even give that well-known botanical garden some competition for outdoor things to do in St. Louis!

See birds and other wildlife

St. Louis is located along one of the most significant migratory flyways in North America. Over 300 bird species use the Mississippi Flyway each year, and depend on natural areas to survive the journey.

Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum is a great example of an urban green space that can provide this natural sanctuary for migrating songbirds. Bellefontaine is partnering with the Audubon Society to enhance bird-friendly habitat and attract more bird species. Over 150 have been identified so far.

Songbirds aren’t the only wildlife you may encounter. The cemetery grounds also provide habitat for small mammals like red foxes and raccoons, and for majestic red tailed hawks, wild turkeys, wood ducks, and other migratory birds. They even have a honey bee colony!

Trees, glorious trees

Arboretums focus on trees, and Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum has over 10,000 trees and shrubs! You’ll see some incredible mature trees, including a 109-foot tall shingle oak  and a red mulberry tree with a trunk that’s 16 feet around.

Bellefontaine’s tree collection is focused on diversity (over 550 woody plant species) and includes many natives as well as selections from around the world.

All these trees and all this variety create changing landscapes all year long, making this St. Louis green space a must-do in every season.

Enjoy flowering trees in spring, lush summer shade, glorious fall foliage, and sculptural deciduous trees in the winter months.

Bellefontaine Cemetery is among the richest historical sites in St. Louis

Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum is one of the oldest St. Louis cemeteries. Founded in 1849, it’s a treasure trove of American history. So many important historical figures are buried here.

The beer barons and Civil War generals may not surprise you, or explorer William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

But how about one of the key members of the Beat generation, William S. Burroughs, author of The Naked Lunch? How about a wealth of influential women, from Susan Blow, who established the first public kindergarten, to famous suffragettes like Virginia Minor, to Pulitzer Prize -winning poet Sara Teasdale?

In Bellefontaine Cemetery, abolitionists, soldiers, and suffragettes tell the American story from the Underground Railroad to the Civil War to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, right on up to the present day. Bellefontaine is still an active cemetery, and has enough space to remain active for the next 200 years.

Bellefontaine Cemetery has architectural gems galore

One of this beautiful cemetery’s highlights is the remarkable collection of architecturally significant monuments and mausoleums.

Architecture students actually come here to study. Architectural styles run the gamut from the Gothic Revival Busch tomb to the recently -built modern mausoleum. Bellefontaine Cemetery boasts the largest number of private and family mausoleums in the state.

The cemetery’s most important architectural treasure is the 1892 Wainwright tomb. The famous mausoleum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and was designated a St. Louis Landmark the following year.

The Wainwright tomb was designed by pioneering American architect Louis Sullivan with a little help from his then-draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Throw in a few historic buildings, including a beautiful chapel and a pretty gatehouse, and you’re in architecture heaven. And that includes modern day architecture. More on that soon.

Let’s take a stroll and discover some historical and architectural gems.

Take the Bellefontaine Cemetery tour with me

My Bellefontaine Cemetery tour was on a sunny mid-April day. My guide was none other than Joe Shields, Bellefontaine’s development director.

Joe is continuing a family tradition—he is the 5th generation to work in the cemetery! His enthusiasm for Bellefontaine and its history was infectious.

William Clark Monument

Our first stop was the William Clark Monument. William Clark was half of the explorer duo, Lewis and Clark, who in 1804 led a small team on an arduous two-year journey from St. Louis all the way to the Pacific ocean and back.

Then-Presdient Thomas Jefferson was the catalyst for the expedition. He wanted to faciliate commerce and locate routes that would connect the continent’s interior to the Pacific Ocean.

Tasked with finding the fabled Northwest Passage (they found there wasn’t one) they still managed to get there overland throuh the Rocky Mountains, mapping the topography along the way. (Source: Encyclopedia Virginia)

Clark died in 1838, 11 years before Bellefontaine was established. He was buried on a farm that eventually became part of the cemetery. His monument, which includes a large obelisk, a statue, and other features, was built in 1904.

Meet me on Daffodil Hill

We next visited an exquisite spot almost completely covered with a swathe of daffodils. Joe told me about being among the staff and volunteers who planted 10,000 bulbs here in 2019 (ouch, I say).

This latest mass planting increased the total number of daffodils in the entire cemetery to upwards of 250,000.

The daffodils were a bit past peak at my visit (which makes me want to come back and see them in peak bloom) but still delightful. I can only imagine how gorgeous it’s going to be as they continue to naturalize and increase year after year.

What is a Mausoleum?

A mausoleum is a free-standing, above-ground structure, usually made of stone, built to house the remains of the dead. Pyramids, where the Egyptian pharaohs were laid to rest, are examples of extremely large mausoleums. Another one is the Taj Mahal.

Mausoleums hold one or more crypts, with each crypt containing a casket. The word tomb, while not exactly the same, is often used interchangeably with mausoleum.

Fast fact: the word Mausoleum comes from Mausolus, a 4th century BCE king in Asia Minor. After his death, his queen built a magnificent monument to house his remains. His mausoleum survived for over 1,000 years and is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Are you ready to see some famous mausoleums?

The Adolphus Busch Mausoleum

The first famous mausoleum on my Bellefontaine Cemetery tour was the Adolphus Busch Mausoleum, circa 1921. The King of Beer’s Gothic Revival shrine is notable for its tall spire, identical to the one atop Notre Dame Paris, before the tragic fire.

Is it ostentatious? Yes a bit, but maybe he just really liked Notre Dame? We peeked through the door to get a glimpse of the interior, where elaborate stained glass panels increase the resemblance to a church.

Built from unpolished red Missouri granite, the slate roof is topped with the aforementioned copper spire, ornate finials, and engraved grape vines. Hop flower embellishments decorate the area above the bronze doors.

The Latin inscription above the entrance reads, “Veni, Vidi, Vici,” meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

That’s a quote from Julius Caesar, who, apparently like Busch, was not overly modest. Born 1839 in Germany, Busch was the cofounder of Anheuser-Busch brewery. He joined the business after marrying Eberhard Anheuser’s daughter Lily.

Adolphus Busch Mausoleum, 1921
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Architect: Thomas P. Barnett

The Wainwright Tomb

Louis Sullivan’s architecture

We moved on to the cemetery’s Prospect Avenue, known as Millionaire’s Row. Millionaire’s Row is situated on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, and is where many of the St. Louis elite chose to be interred.

And here was my favorite famous mausoleum, the one designed by renowned American architect Louis Sullivan. I’m biased, because I love his work. It’s one of only three Sullivan-designed mausoleums in the world.

Ornamentation is one of the key characteristics of Sullivan’s style. His decorative style is often associated with the swirling organic forms of the Art Nouveau movement. Curvilinear and geometric forms are entwined in symmetrical patterns with stylized foliage.

While the ornamentation itself is intricate, it is applied sparingly. The overall design remains simple. “Form follows function” was perhaps Sullivan’s most famous dicta.

Related: The Colcord Hotel in Oklahoma City is a wonderful example of Sullivanesque style.

The Taj Mahal of St. Louis

The Wainwright tomb is the resting place of millionaire brewer Ellis Wainwright and his wife. The name may bring to mind the Wainwright building in downtown St. Louis, another of Sullivan’s architectural masterpieces. Both are on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The story is a tragic one. Sullivan had just completed the 10-story early skyscraper when Wainwright’s beautiful young wife, Charlotte, died of peritonitis. She was only 34. Wainwright commissioned Sullivan to build a tomb for her, earning the monument the title Taj Mahal of St. Louis.

It would be 32 years before Wainwright joined his wife here. The quotation on his tomb reads: “O for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still.”

About the structure

The structure is startlingly simple, a dome atop a cube. The exterior walls are concrete covered in limestone, carved with a border of stylized floral patterns.

The entrance has a double-leafed bronze grille and double doors. There is a window set into either side, plain glass covered with embellished bronze grilles.

Inside a mausoleum

And this beauty is where I was able to go inside a mausoleum for the very first time.

The inside of the tomb has quite a different feeling from the exterior. The entire ceiling and floor are mosaic tile, with two marble crypts set into the floor.

The granite and tile on the floor and lower walls are darker in color than those on the higher part of the walls and ceiling, giving the feeling of more height to the space, and of rising from the dark to the light.

The walls are multi-colored marble with inset benches, arches, and patterned mosiac decorating the perimeter. I believe the tomb is unique among Sullivan’s works for having his decorative elements executed in tile.

The decorations on the inside of the dome were surprising. It is peppered with little angels. Apparently modeled on Rafael, they are very un-Sullivanesque, yet I found them whimsical and rather heartbreakingly sweet.

I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to see this. Admittedly, I’m weird, but I found the whole thing swoon-worthy. I even got a photo inside the mausoleum.

To clean or not to clean

The tomb’s exterior was most recently cleaned in 2022. Joe told me he consulted with a number of experts about cleaning the limestone. Several were of the opinion not to clean it at all.

I saw a picture of the pre-cleaned structure. I saw it in all its spruced-up glory. And I prefer it clean.

The Mona Lisa, The Birth of Venus, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling have all been cleaned, so I think it’s okay for this example of famous American architecture.

The bronze outer doors were left with their patina intact, which seems a wise choice.

The Gertrude & William A. Bernoudy Foundation donated funds to clean the tomb. Frank Lloyd Wright was Sullivan’s draftsman at the time the tomb was built. William Bernoudy studied under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Love it when things come around full circle. The Wainwright tomb is an architecture lover’s dream. Hurry up and come see it while it’s still pristine.

Wainwright tomb, 1892
Architectural Style: Sullivanesque
Architect: Louis Sullivan

Rivalry across the road: The Lemp Mausoleum

Directly across the road from Wainwright is the family tomb of William Jacob Lemp. Apparently Lemp built his tomb where he did specifically to block Wainwright’s view of the Mississippi River.

The two had a less than friendly rivalry. They were competitors in the St. Louis brewing market. Well, I guess we all have neighbors we don’t get along with.

The Lemp family tomb is twice distinguished. It’s both the largest on Bellefontaine Cemetery’s Millionaire’s Row and the one situated at the highest point.

The Lemps, though now less well-known than Anheuser-Busch, were an equally important St. Louis brewing family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like Anheuser and Busch, the Lemps were German immigrants who made a fortune from brewing and selling beer.

Unlike the Anheuser-Busch, their wealth didn’t seem to bring them happiness. They were one of St. Louis’ richest and most tragic families.

The family’s history is marked by several suicides. The Lemp family name died out, and the grand mausoleum is only half full.

The exterior of the resplendent Neoclassical structure is Vermont granite. The interior is solid marble. I was allowed to see inside the mausoleum, with its beautiful stained glass. Of its 32 crypts, 16 on either side, only 14 are occupied.

If you’re interested in exploring more history related to the Lemps, the Lemp Family mansion, located next to the former Lemp Brewery in Benton Park, is now The Lemp Mansion Restaurant and Inn.

The inn is both a restaurant and an event space, and offers 4 suites, each a former bedroom of one of the Lemp family members.

Lemp Family Tomb, 1902
Architectural Style: NeoClassical
Architect: Frank Henry Kronauge

The Tate Mausoleum

Frank N. Tate was a theater magnate who owned most of the theaters in St. Louis and some in Chicago and New York. His Egyptian Revival mausoleum is appropriately dramatic.

Tate is famous for telling Harry Houdini he wasn’t worth a 5-dollar bill. That is some harsh feedback.

This proclamation prompted Houdini to create a new act, and his career took off. We all know his name, so I guess he was worth more than $5.

According to my research, his net worth was 500K when he died in 1926, equivalent to almost 9 million in today’s dollars.

The mausoleum’s Egyptian Revival features include lotus capitals and ancient Egyptian sun symbols (a winged disc with serpents on either side) both above the entry doors and above the porch. And, of course, the pair of granite sphinxes, set to guard Mr. Tate for eternity.

frank N. Tate Mausoleum, 1907
Architectural Style: Egyptian Revival
Architect: eames and young

The Cascade, the Modern Mausoleum

Joe’s keen sense of drama was at its best in his build-up and reveal of the newest Bellefontaine mausoleum. It is the first mausoleum to be built in the cemetery for over 70 years.

As we drove along, Joe explained there had been a long dry period for mausoleum construction in Bellefontaine. The extraordinary expense, along with the growing popularity of cremation, had made the funerary art form almost obsolete.

Joe is a master of understatement. As we turned a wide corner, he remarked that there was quite a difference between the older tombs and the new one. Right then, the Cascade Mausoleum came into view. I gasped.

Clean horizontal lines and shining white granite certainly are in sharp contrast to the highly ornamented, time-darkened stone of the older tombs. And it is enormous!

The 26-foot-tall, 5-million-dollar monument was designed by local architect Thomas Wall. The owners gave Wall carte blanche for both design and budget.

The structure is heavily imbued with Christian symbolism. The viewer takes a metaphorical journey from life (outside) to death (crypt level), and finally ascends a wide stairway leading to an open rooftop terrace, which represents the afterlife.

Inside the polished black granite crypt, the stained glass was made by a 123-year-old artisan shop, Emil Frei & Associates. The same St. Louis shop created the mosaics decorating the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. The cathedral boasts the largest collection of mosaics in the world.

Some traditional mausoleum materials, including marble and limestone, corrode over time. This one is made to last.

In places, the white granite is an incredible two-feet thick. At the top of the staircase, a Christian cross is cut into one of these deep walls.

The structure acts a sundial to commemorate an important date, the family matriarch’s birthday. Each year on December 20, sunlight comes through the cross at the top of the stairs to illuminate another cross engraved at the base.

The modern mausoleum is a St. Louis mystery. The owners want to keep their name private until the first burial. So of course, that keeps everybody guessing.

In the meantime, the St. Louis community, and lucky Bellefontaine visitors like me, are invited to walk on up the grand staircase and enjoy the view from the rooftop terrace.

That view is nothing short of spectacular. Looking out over Cascade lake, Wildwood Valley Columbarium and Gardens, and the surrounding arboretum, I think it’s a view I wouldn’t mind having for eternity.

Cascade Mausoleum, 2022
Architectural Style: Modern
Architect: Thomas Wall of St. Louis firm Mitchell Wall

Wildwood Valley Columbarium and Gardens

Bellefontaine is fortunate to have two lakes on the property. A meandering, cascading stream connects Cascade, the upper lake, to Cypress, the lower.

Between the two lakes, the Wildwood Valley has been beautifully landscaped and filled with flowering gardens, walking paths, hundreds of feet of curving walls, grassy terraces, and the occasional fountain.

An outdoor columbarium is located here, along with plenty of seating to enjoy the peaceful setting.

What is the history of Bellefontaine Cemetery?

I mentioned that Bellefontaine was the first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi. Before the rural, or garden, cemetery movement, people were usually buried on church or private property.

But in expanding urban areas, like early nineteenth-century St. Louis, cemeteries were filling up fast. And city land was in demand for development.

St. Louis leaders conceived of Bellefontaine as a cemetery for everyone. Large enough that land would be available for citizens far into the future. Far enough away from downtown that there would be no demand for its land.

The “rural garden” cemetery concept was rather like a public park. With its landscaping and gardens, it was meant to be a place of solace and natural beauty open to the community. In its tranquil rural location, the departed could rest in peace and their loved ones could have a quiet place to reflect and remember them.

Bellefontaine has expanded on that concept today, creating one of the best parks in St. Louis. It’s an accredited arboretum, preserving species diversity. It provides habitat for birds and wildlife, and beautification projects are ongoing.

Bellefontaine Cemetery famous graves

Who famous is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery? Too many for me to list, but I’ll give you a few highlights. Over 87,000 people are buried or memorialized here.

You’ve already heard about William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Adolphus Busch, Ellis Wainwright and his wife Charlotte, the Lemp family, and writer William S. Burroughs. Other notable burials:

• James B. Eads, the engineer who designed the Eads Bridge. This National Historic Landmark was the world’s first steel-truss bridge, the first bridge to carry railroad tracks, and the first to depend entirely on cantilever construction for its superstructure. During the Civil War, Eads designed iron-clad gunboats that helped to turn the tide in favor of Ulysses S. Grant at the siege of Vicksburg.
• Isaiah Sellers, a Mississippi steamboat captain. Sellers wrote for the New Orleans Picayune under the pseudonym Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens, who admired Sellers’ honest reporting, later took the pseudonym for himself. In case you didn’t know, Clemens/Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and lived in St. Louis for a time. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York.

Recenlty Bellefontaine historians have discovered a number of accomplished women. Earlier, I mentioned Susan Blow, who established the country’s first public kindergarten, famous suffragette Virginia Minor, and Sara Teasdale, who won the first Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Here’s a few more:

• Gerty Cori, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize
• Irma S. Rombauer, whose The Joy of Cooking is one of the most widely read cookbooks in the world
• Swimmer Martha Brown, a 3-time Olympic gold medalist
• Phoebe Couzins, one of the first women lawyers in the U.S. and the first female U.S. Marshall
• Dr. Helen Elizabeth Nash, the first African-American physician to join the attending staff at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the first African-American woman to join the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine
• Abolitionist Mary Meachum
• Ruth Stewart, the first St. Louis woman to receive a pilot’s license
• Edna Gellhorn, American suffragist and reformer who played a prominent role in founding the National League of Women Voters

One last, and a personal favorite. Bellefontaine Cemetery is the final resting place of the Prufrock family. William Prufrock immigrated to St. Louis and founded a furniture company.

When his son, Harry, took over, he merged with the Litton family. The Prufrock-Litton Company was so successful it occupied an entire city block downtown, had a showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York and a manufacturing center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Harry was a gifted ad man, and his ads for the furniture company were ubiquitous in St. Louis. This is likely how the name “Prufrock” lodged itself in the brain of St. Louis resident T.S. Eliot. Later , it inspired the nomenclature in his famous poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

Sustainability and green burial

Bellefontaine Cemetery embraces long-term environmental stewardship and actively works to minimize the cemetery’s carbon footprint. Their many green practices include landscape management, reducing energy, conserving resources, and green end-of-life services.

Green burial is an environmentally friendly natural burial option. No embalming, metal caskets or burial vaults are used, but rather a biodegradable pine or wicker casket. Bellefontaine also offers flameless cremation, a greener alternative to traditional cremation practices.

Bellefontaine Cemetery Tours and Visitor Information

Bellefontaine Cemetery Tours

Want to get in on one of the best free tours in St. Louis?

Free bus/trolley tours: Select Saturdays, March through November
Free walking tours: Three-mile walk exploring the flora, fauna, and history of the cemetery. Advance reservations required.
Tours are led by a Bellefontaine Master Guide.
Please see Bellefontaine’s Events Calendar for tour dates and info about special events.
For more information, call 314-381-0750.

Bellefontaine welcomes walk-in visitors. Self-guided tour brochures are available in the cemetery office, located in the building just to the right of the main gate. Public bathrooms are located in the Willow Gatehouse, the building to the left of the gate.

Bellefontaine Cemetery Hours and Directions

visiting hours: 8 AM to 4:30 PM, 365 days a year
business hours: 8 AM to 4:30 PM, monday through friday
cemetery gates are locked promptly at 5 pm

Directions

Address: 4947 West Florissant Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri

From I-70, take Exit 245B for West Florissant Avenue. Proceed northwest on West Florissant for 0.7 miles to the cemetery’s main entrance, which will be on the right, just after Shreve Avenue.

Please note! If you use Google Maps, be sure to enter the address 4947 West Florissant, and check that the directions jive with the ones above. Otherwise Google may lead you to another entrance which is not actually an entrance. I did this, of course.

Conclusion: why you should visit Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis

As you might have guessed, I fell in love with Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum. It’s truly a place with something for everyone.

Birdwatchers, history buffs, architecture lovers, picnickers, hikers, art enthusiasts, wildlife lovers, tourists, St. Louis residents, explorers, gardeners, wanderers, and just people who like to be outdoors will all enjoy it here.

In summary, here’s why you should visit Bellefontaine Cemetery:

• Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum’s expansive green space makes it one of the top outdoor things to do in St. Louis. Come for a walk, a picnic, enjoy the landscape, the trees, the birds and wildlife. It’s a great place to get outside, year-round.
• Bellefontaine has tons of history. Check out the historic tombs, the history-makers buried here, the spectacular monuments. Learn about both St. Louis and American history.
• Bellefontaine is an outdoor museum of beautiful art and architecture, including the Louis Sullivan-designed Wainwright tomb, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery itself is listed on the National Register for both its historically significant architecture and significant landscapes. What better recommendation is there?
• Bellefontaine Cemetery is one of the best free St. Louis attractions. Both guided and self-guided tours are free.
• Bellefontaine is always seeking new ways to engage the public. There are fun tours like trolley tours (I want to do that!) and special events such as the Barons of Beer & Distilling series. New this year, there’s an artist-in-residence. Charles Turnell’s art is on display in the Willow Gatehouse.
• Bellefontaine Cemetery is a big place with lots to discover, including hundreds of monuments and works of art. You can return again and again and never see everything.

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My thanks

My sincere thanks to Joe Shields, Bellefontaine Development Director. I was beyond fortunate to have him give me a personal tour—and on his day off. Thank you, Joe, and thanks to Rachel of Explore St. Louis for making the arrangements.

More urban green spaces to explore:

• Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis
• The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
• Central Park in New York
• Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City
• Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis

More Historic Architecture and Memorials

• The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
• Grand Central Terminal
• The Neue Galerie, a gilded age mansion in NYC, home to the Woman in Gold painting
• The Henry Overholser Mansion in Oklahoma City
• Downtown LA‘s incredible historic buildings
• The historic Nanaboujou Lodge on the Minnesota North Shore
• The Oklahoma City National Memorial
• Historic districts in Kenosha, Wisconsin